>> let's do it! >> let's end with a romney ad. why not? >> they don't have any. >> we don't have lycra. >> can i get wide shot, please? >> you just got a wide shot. >> that is not nice! >> from a bold pick to an electoral death wish, a wide variety of reaction to mitt romney's choice of paul ryan for the number two spot on the gop ticket. this is "special report". good evening. i'm brett brett coming to you tonight from miami. if mitt romney wanted a running mate who would bring out extreme emotions, his pick of wisconsin congressman paul ryan did the trick. conservative republicans are loving it.

democrats are licking their chops and gnashing their teeth. the new ticket kicked off a four-day bus tour this morning. it will include several stops in virginia today, north carolina, and ryan's home state of wisconsin sunday. they'll come here to florida on monday and head to the swing state of ohio tuesday. ryan was first elected to congress in 1998. he's in his 7th term now. the 42-year-old native of jaynesville, wisconsin, is the chairman of the house budget committee. he's married and the father of three children. he doesn't have an apartment in washington, d.c he sleeps on a cot in his capitol hill office and spends most weekends back in wisconsin. he's known for his love of exercise and sports and, of course, economics. ryan has been in the spotlight since introducing his controversial budget plan last march, a plan that drew derision from democrats and skepticism from some republicans at first. but overwhelmingly passed the house and now wide israeli being

praised by conservatives who say dealing with the country's fiscal crisis will take tough choices that americans are ready to make. governor romney fired a shot across the president's fiscal bow today, selecting a budget hawk, a budget reformer and welcoming ryan, framed by a battle ship named after his home state. get the story from carl cameron. >> standing in finance of the uss wisconsin in norfolk, virginia, mitt romney introduced his running mate and promoted him to the top of the ticket. >> the next president of the united states, paul ryan! >> ryan hit the stage noting the ship name for his home state. >> and right in front of the uss wisconsin, huh? man! [ cheers and applause ] >> romney quickly add libbed a correction to ryan's role. >> every now and then i'm known to make a mistake. i did not make a mistake with this guy. but i can tell you this, he will

be the next vice president of the united states. >> four years ago, candidate obama miss introduced joe biden the same way. >> the next president, the next vice president. >> biden referred to mr. obama as barak america. the 42-year-old, 7-term congressman examine powerful chairman of the house budget committee wasted no time attacking the incumbent. >> president obama has become part of the problem and mitt romney is the solution. >> his budge yet proposal which romney endorsed holy spirit year, insures an intensified debate over the size and scope of government, sweeping entitlement reform and slashing the federal debt. >> we will lead. we can turn this thing around real solutions can be delivered. but it will take leadership. and the courage to tell you the truth. >> ryan's clashed more than once with the president over the federal budget and pulled no punches in his debut as the running mate. >> higher unemployment, declining incomes, and crushing

debt is not a new normal! it is the result of misguided policies. >> within minutes of the announcement, democrats were railing that ticket would destroy social security and medicare, clearly anticipating the attacks, romney played up ryan's popularity in both parties for having the courage to speak his mind and take bold stand. >> a lot of people in the other party who might disagree with paul ryan. i don't know of anyone who doesn't respect his character and judgment. [ cheers and applause ] >> conservatives see a mandate for change if the romney-ryan ticket ousts the obama administration. >> i believe that my record of getting things done in congress will be very helpful compliment to governor romney's executive and private sector success outside of washington. >> he has limited foreign policy experience and having first been elected to congress at 28, has little of the private sector experience. romney has said any vice president should have. but they have chemistry and share a passion for problem solving and data crunching.

the truth is, both of them are self-acknowledged policy wonks. while paul ryan may note be the most charismatic of picks, he believes the romney campaign believes that the two of them will communicate to the country an emphasis on writing the fiscal house and getting the economy back in order. bret? >> you'll sleep well tonight, i'm sure. thank you. as carl mentioned, the president's surrogates jumped right on the ryan pick and quickly telegraphed they will go after the ticket as full of dangerous and antiquated ideas. but ed henry reports the men actually on the democratic ballot are playing nice, so far. >> as he headed to chicago to raise money, president obama had nothing to say about the big news. >> what do you think about the ryan pick? >> letting his campaign do the talking, with tweets and text messages charging the republican

pick is radical. immediately rolling out a tough new ad that calls paul ryan the mastermind of an extreme budget. >> top obama advisors can hardly contain their glee. the election is now what they've wanted. a choice about the next four years instead of a referendum on the last four. though ryan quickly made clear what unemployment high and the debt soaring, he'll hammer the president on the future and the past. >> he didn't do things that were centrist. he stayed hard left. so if he can't run on his record, if he didn't moderate, what's he got left? he's going to divide and distract this country to win an election by default. you know what? we're not going to fall for that! [ cheers and applause ] >> ahead of their one face-to-face debate in kentucky on october 11, vice president biden placed a call of congratulations to ryan, while he previously laced his attacks with classic bidenesque caveats.

>> he's a decent, smart guy, a guy named congressman ryan, republican in the house of representatives. no, no. i disagree fundamentally with him, but this is a smart, decent guy. >> biden allies now suggest he'll outshine ryan on everything from the economy to national security. >> paul ryan has laid out the very clear right wing blueprint about how to help rich people in this country. >> does anybody really think that paul ryan is more ready to be president of the united states than a world leader like joe biden? soy think that distinction will be very clear as well. >> ryan's fans scoff and say the american people are hungering for his kind of candor. >> paul ryan is the real agent of hope and change. it's interesting that that was the 2008 campaign theme of barak obama. he's not running on hope and change now. he's kind of running on the status quo and fear. and paul ryan is an optimist. >> notice that after days of stories about whether the president's likeability ratings will take a hit because of those attacks like the cancer ad, mr. obama himself is trying to

stay above the fray. starting monday on a three-day bus tour of iowa, the gloves may come off. bret? >> ed henry, thank you. let's get some analysis now from a couple of political veterans. joe trevi is a long-time democratic strategist. ed rollins is a republican strategist. welcome to you both. joe, first of all, we spent the day talking about this pick, what may have been behind it. let's talk about the electoral map quickly and how it helps or hurts mitt romney. >> well, both geographically and demographically it has implications. the first is thatt few weeks, we've been seeing obama start to build a slight lead, build up some of his lead in ohio and wisconsin and michigan, throughout the midwest. it looked a little bit like that was slipping away. paul ryan helps there geographically. obviously a midwesterner with

his family and could put wisconsin into play. the one question mark, though, is with the democrats are going to go after him on the cuts in medicare and on some of his budget issues. you've got a problem potentially there are seniors in places suddenly like florida, for example. could be put in jeopardy now if the democrats take the fight effectively on the ryan budget as they clearly plan on doing. so i think you've got some demographics that could shift around, but geographickiccally, it's definitely -- it definitely helps shore up the midwest for him a little bit where he really was slipping and needed a boost there. >> ed, your thoughts? >> first of all, i think he's one of the brightest men in congress. he's a protege of the late jack kemp whose campaign i had the privilege of chairing in 1988. kemp was the architect of the reagan tax cuts that boomed the

economy. as a young man, he picked this young man to move the agenda forward. i think he can go out -- there is not 20 people in washington that understand the budget as well as he does and the debate needs to be on the tough, tough choices that this country needs to make and there is no one more articulate or better than to make those choices. i think clearly this will invigorate conservatives, republicans across the country. unlike sarah palin four years ago who did the same thing, invigorated, but couldn't go the long haul because she didn't have that inside knowledge. he has that knowledge. he can articulate it better than anybody and i think to a certain extents, it will be a fascinating campaign. he adds the ten electoral votes in wisconsin that haven't voted for a republican since reagan in '84. i think he makes it in play. i think florida is about romney. romney has to win these key states like florida and ohio. the ticket obviously is an added addition. >> ed, what about the decision to go this morning, on a

saturday morning? obviously this bus tour is planned and they'll hit these different states. a saturday morning, to be honest, a lot of people aren't really watching in the middle of summer probably. and what about that decision? what do you think was behind it? >> what i think was behind it is i think for 23 weekser the democrat -- two or three weeks the democrats have been hammering and i think they wanted to get the vp thing behind them to change the direction, to get some momentum on this important tour. the next two weeks are critical. what's to define what it is he's going to run on, not just against obama, but what does his policies, there is nobody better to be the architect of that than this. so i think it gives us an opportunity to roll out this weekend, keep going for the next two weeks, get to our convention, start the fall campaign going full bore. >> joe, quickly, they'll finish this bus tour together, but then they'll separate and there is benefit there to the ticket, both in fundraising and in getting to a number of different

swing states and local markets. >> i think that was one of the big benefits by going this early away from the convention. they get all these days here where i think palin and biden were both picked days before their conventions. this gives romney another person, paul ryan is very articulate h a great day today. i was really impressed for the first time to be out there under this pressure and he handled himself i think very well. so have that out there and today had to have been a huge fundraising day. they're gog have more of those between now and the convention because of this pick. >> we will have you back between now and the convention. joe, ed, thank you, as always. >> thank you. >> what do you think about governor romney's selection of paul ryan? let me know on twitter. follow me at bretbaeir. we will get reaction from brit hume, that's a bit later. up next, paul ryan on the

attack. as we head to break, we went out and talked to some folks here about how the ryan pick will play in the swing state of florida. >> your first reaction when you heard paul ryan was the pick today? >> well, i'm excited. i'm excited. i think he's going to do real well. it's going to be a plus for the ticket. but i was hoping more that marco rubio would be the one, you know. >> so you wanted marco rubio, but you think paul ryan can pull it off? >> yeah. paul ryan will pull it off, even though he's not a speaker like marco rubio

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economy. someone who knows from experience that if you have a small business, you did build that. [ cheers and applause ] >> launched from the uss wisconsin, his opening blast of president obama. in an election showdown that is fully staffed. across seven terms in the house. >> the hearing will come to order. >> and as chairman of the budget committee the last two years, congressman ryan has emerged as the republican party's leading salesman on economic issues. a simplified tax code with sharply reduced rates. >> our debility is a share of the economy is too high. but look where it's going. >> ryan's self style path to prosperity for which he starred in this inconvenient truth like video offer has classic supply side approach to balanced budgeting, a conservative vision that returns responsibility for the social safety net to the states through federal block grants and envisions medicare recipients choosing from an array of different plans.

>> he's part of the reagan heritage of the republican party. it shows in the policies he's put out there today. he's mr. sunshine. he's not mr. austerity. >> during the debates over health care in the national debt, ryan has jousted with president obama. >> if you think they want a government takeover of health care, i would respectfully submit you're not listening to them. >> it is rare for a president to engage in opposition house member who is not speaker or leader so directly. it is as if mr. obama has sensed his ascent through the gop ranks, but looming danger of a politically savvy intellect that is equal to his own. accordingly, the president has charged ryan with social darwinism and invited him to events seemingly for the sole purpose of berating him. >> nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. >> when the president is ready to get serious about it, we'll be here working. exploding people's emotions of fear, envy and anxiety is not

hope. it's not change. it's partisanship. >> introducing his ticket mate in norfolk, governor romney made a point of mentioning ryan's pro-life catholicism and his permanent. >> in a city that's far too often characterized by pettiness and personal attacks, paul ryan is a shining exception. he doesn't demonize his opponents. >> but as the republican primaries showed, the party's conservative base yearns for a candidate who will eviscerate the president with relish. it remains to be seen how paul ryan will fulfill the traditional role of attack dog. brett? >> bret: we'll see. thank you. still ahead, senior political analyst brit hume. later we go to jaynesville, wisconsin, where it all started for paul ryan. >> i don't know what i think of it as of yet. but i can tell you i will not be voting for romney no matter who he was going to pick.

i really like obama. i think he's done a fantastic job with what he had to come into office with. >> it has no effect whatsoever on my vote. the truth is, i don't know who ryan is and i don't know much about romney. i will be voting for romney mainly because i have no faith in obama and i believe we need change

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>> bret: welcome back to a special saturday "special report." senior political analyst brit hume has followed a few presidential campaigns. he joins us now on the phone with reaction to the new gop ticket. good evening, brit. you've had a day to digest all of this. your thoughts on this ticket? >> it certainly has electrified both sides. undoubtedly will give mr. romney a united convention, an excited

convention. you could see that from the crowd in manassas, virginia this afternoon. you sense it in all that we're hearing and seeing. but i was struck by the sound bite that preceded your last commercial break where the guy said he didn't know much about romney and he didn't know much about ryan either, but he was going to vote against obama because he didn't think obama could get the job done. i think in the end, it's well to remember that for all the excitement and anticipation that the vice presidential selection involves and has for a long time, that the vice presidential selection and the vice presidential campaign tends to recede into the background more quickly than you would imagine on the day that it's announced. that may be true here as well. however, having said that, i will say that i do think that the ryan plan, the budget plan and all that goes with it is now for sure become the romney plan and it won't be enough that ryan can defend it well. romney will have to defend it well himself.

>> bret: exactly. we've heard many times paul ryan go into the weeds in that defense. he has trimmed it down in a way that is understandable for a lot of people. but these attacks will come fast and furious, not related to the operation that we hear about so much. but it will happen a lot around the country in these attack ads. and will there be enough defense from both romney and ryan to hold this off? >> well, romney has shown -- by the way, i'm not at kennebunkport, i'm 30 miles from the north. but i'm near it. what i would say about that is that romney has shown and he showed it through the debates in the republican primary season that he studies his briefing well and has command of factual material. so he will be able, i think if he sets his mind to it, to develop a work knowledge of all the budget details and so forth of the ryan plan and will be in

a position to defend it. now, there are certain key facts about the ryan plan that the romney campaign is going to have to get across. one of them is that the medicare spending restraint that's going to come into play does not affect anybody who is now on medicare, doesn't affect anybody 55 and older. that's an important fact because you keep hearing it. i've heard it all day today that seniors may react negatively to this. well. >> not current seniors. they're not affected by this. the latest version of the ryan plan that they put together with democratic senator ron widen of oregon would allow old-fashioned medicare to be an option for seniors going forward. so there are certain facts in defense that will need to be mastered. i suspect romney will be able to do it, but we'll soon find out. >> bret: and whether the media is able to share that side of the story is also an interesting part of it.

>> well, i think that we would be hoping for too much if we were to believe that the media will be unbalanced -- fair and balanced in this conversation. i suspect that will not be the case. but we can always hope, can't we? >> bret: we can. brit hume from maine. thank you very much as always. >> you bet. >> bret: we'll hear from a special expanded edition of the fox all stars back in washington in a few minutes. up next, from budget reformer to family man to workout warrior, the real paul ryan. >> i don't think it ever really mattered or mattered who you're running mate is. at the end of the day, you're actually after the front runner. it's not going to change my vote. i'm still republican. as long as we can win, it's good ♪ i want to win

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>> bret: the country will get to know paul ryan much better in the next 87 days. but we can give you a pretty good idea of who he is and where he came from right now. correspondent steve brown is in ryan's hometown of jaynesville, wisconsin. >> we need new leadership to become part of the solution, new leadership to restore prosperity, economic growth and jobs. [ cheers and applause ] >> paul ryan is young for national politics, but that's not to say he's new to it. in the '90s, he worked for two republican u.s. senators, wisconsin bob casten and sam brownback of kansas. in '96, he wrote speeches for vp nominee jack kemp. two years later he won a seat in the u.s. house, although one badger state gop leader admits he tried to talk ryan out of it. >> after about a 15 minute conversation, i could see that he had his heart set on running for congress and i kind of shrugged it off and said good

luck, i don't think you'll make it. i kind of understatemented him. >> few understatement him anymore. at 16, he found his father dead from a heart attack. it is why ryan takes care of himself. he describes himself as a gym rat, offered cake when he did fox news sunday on his birthday, ryan said no thanks. >> you don't have to eat it. >> i'm not going to. i gave it up a long time ago. >> his regular lunch order from the restaurant across the street from his congressional office? >> turkey burg better feet -- burker with fruit. >> every time? >> every time. >> much of his time at home is with his wife and three children. in dc, as he explained in an interview with bret baier, he lays his head down in his off. >> you get home, you manage to get home -- >> i have a cot in my office here. i'm here four days of the week, after the last vote, i head home. >> rick: wisconsin republicans would love to see ryan help tip the state red for the first time

since ronald reagan. >> was mitt romney going to get your vote anyway? >> i don't know yet for sure. but we're leaning towards that. >> does this help new some way? >> yes, it does. >> as much as conservatives in wisconsin like paul ryan progressives dislike him in equal measure n. this most partisan of partisan states, if you will, this move to put ryan on the ticket has seemed to energize both sides, at least in wisconsin. bret? >> bret: steve brown live in jaynesville, when which is now ground zero for politics apparently. steve, thank you. today was a big day and it was a big day if virginia at the uss wisconsin. >> the commitment mitt romney and i make to you is this: we won't duck the tough issues. we will lead. [ cheers and applause ] we won't blame others. we will take responsibility!

real solutions can be delivered, but it will take leadership and the courage to tell you the truth. mitt romney is this kind of leader. >> paul ryan has become an intellectual leader of the republican party. he understands the fiscal challenges facing america, our exploding deficit and crushing debt, and the fiscal catastrophe that awaits us if we don't change course. >> bret: that was today. it's a virginia stop today on this bus tour that is ongoing. just stopped in manassas a few moments ago, earlier before the show. then they head to north carolina and ryan's home state of wisconsin on sunday. they'll come here to florida on monday and head to ohio on tuesday. we're also hearing of a possible stop in iowa. but it is not locked in. let's bring in our panel. bill crystal, editor of the weekly standard. kirsten powers, columnist for the daily beast. charles lane, opinion writer for the "washington post."

and syndicated columnist, charles krauthammer. okay, charles, we had you earlier on today. your thoughts looking at the coverage today and kind of soaking in, as i asked brit, as you look back at this choice. >> i think ryan did very well. it's not easy to get on the stage that large and do as well as he did on day one. i see from the reaction, the tweets, the ad that the democrats have already prepared that we may not get the high debate that we had anticipated or thought we might because the obama people aren't going to allow it. they know that their best way to go after this is to demagogue on medicare, to distort and they will, and that could be effective. i think the main thing that ryan can do rather than to play defense here is to deflect all of these attacks which will be inevitable, and they can be dispatched quickly, like misinformation on medicare, and

simply say, we have a plan. they've been in office for a term and have nothing. what are they offering a that would work, that would change the stagnation that they have brought upon the country? that's a powerful argument. i think they have to be really careful that they don't get bogged down into defense of every jot and tiddle on the ryan plan, but be aggressive and go after an administration that hasn't got a record it can run on and does not have an idea in its head other than raising taxes. >> bret: kirsten, we've seen a lot of polls in recent days and depending on the poll, it's all over the map, gallup does a tracking poll. the most recent gallup daily tracking poll has this race at 46-46. this is a national poll. what does this choice, do you think, say about mitt romney? >> what my immediate thought was when i heard this was that this

is mitt romney thinks he's going to lose, that he felt like he had to do something really bold rather than go with a more safe bet would be rob portman, for example, because he's not really known as somebody who takes a lot of risks and b, this is a very risky choice. i think that paul ryan is an extremely impresssive person. i give him a lot of credit for being willing to come out and say exactly what he believes and to put it in writing and to stand by it. he's an excellent politician and he's very good at persuading people. i think he has a real humble way of doing that. but the problem for romney is he needs the selection to be about obama. as much as everybody is getting so excited that we're going to have this big idea debate, which i agree with charles is not going to happen. but even if it did happen, that's not the debate that romney really wants to have. he wants to talk about barak obama and what barak obama has done wrong and the obama campaign has been trying to change that conversation to focus on romney and what romney did today is basically do their

work for them. >> bret: but bill, on the flip side of that argument, you have this being about barak obama. he could have taken the ball and the simpson bowles decision, the group that came up with a plan that he croated in december of 2010 and he didn't. that's barak obama decision, one that the paul ryan choice brings into center focus, right? >> i just don't agree with the conventional wisdom that when an incumbent is running about the election, it's a referendum and in this case -- so the right thing for the challenger is make it about obama and sort of don't do anything controversial. it's impossible. you're running for president of the united states. people understand, people aren't idiots. they see two names, obama and romney. it's a choice. people can say, it should be a referendum, it should be a referendum. it's a choice. you've got to accept the fact that it's a choice and give

people, give them an alternate way forward. they know the country is not in great shape and they also want to know that president romney, governor romney as president will fix the problems and i think in that respect, the ryan pick is the right pick. romney has embraced the fact that it has to be a choice and it has to be a substantive choice for the voters. >> bret: what about kirsten's sense that this is about romney thinking he was going to lose? >> well, i think he's a little behind. i think the campaign was floundering and i think it's a very good pick in that respect, too. one thing a good candidate does is realize things aren't going great and you can't afford to play it safe. maybe if we were totally falling apart you could afford to play it safe. even then it's not true that's how challengers win presidential elections. the two incumbent have been defeated in the last 80 years are carter and clinton. reagan made clear it was a choice. it took voters a while, until october to grasp, and accept the

case he was making. clinton gave voters a choice and gave them a choice with al gore. >> bret: okay, chuck. i promise on the other side of the break, you lead off the panel. more on the romney-ryan ticket when the panel returns after a quick time out. >> florida is the swing state. other than ohio. republicans need a win here. how does this pick play in this state? >> i think the bottom line is this is where the medi scare will start from the democrats. you'll see a push back on paul ryan as the guy who wants to cut medicare and social security, the guy who wants to cut medicaid. that's the argument they'll make. the question is, is it going to work. >> bret: we know how the scare goes. we've soon the ads. we know how seniors are targeted in some of these ads to affect their vote. but how does the deficit and debt and the fiscal cliff play in this state? >> i think if you can link it to

job, it plays really well. that was the lesson of 2010. if you can link it to the economy, that plays well. that's what we learned then. but this is also a pocketbook issue not only for individuals for seniors and baby boomers, but for florida at large. remember, medicare, social security, and medicaid, $96 billion in direct spending in this state a year. that's big in our economy. you start scaling that back, that affects florida's economy. >> bret: but they get that the national debt and the deficits can't be dealt with without dealing with that in some way, shape or form? >> that's a good question. we're going to have to see how that plays out. campaigns are marketing campaigns and we'll see how they sell that. has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons.

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>> bret: romney, ryan, that's the ticket, 2012. the gop heading to the convention after they get through this bus tour. the real question is, as these attacks start, will this ticket be able to defend against all of the attacks that are coming?

there is already an obama ad out today. i talked to paul ryan about one of the specifics in that ad. take a listen to this. >> cut pell grants by $170 billion and cut off a million students over the next decade. >> what our budget does is keeps programs where they are. we just don't sign up for the dramatic additional increase that the president's proposing and apparently if we're not increasing penning as much as the president proposes, that's considered a huge cut. we're actually keeping the pell grants where they are because we're worried about what this does to feed tuition inflation. we don't think taxpayers should consistently finance tuition inflation. that does nothing had help the students and makes it harder for people to afford an education in the long run. >> so is he wrong when he says this stuff? >> he's wrong all the time when he says these things. we're used to that. don't get me wrong, but everything the president says about you budgets, about our numbers, we're used to him

telling things that are dramatic distortions. >> bret: that is from a profile interview i did perspective vp donald dates a while back. back with the panel, chuck, both sides of the aisle, people will tell you does he a great job explaining things and defending his budget proposal. as you saw in the ad, it comes at you quickly. will the campaign be able to defend against each one of those spots as charles talked about earlier? >> well, i suppose in a tactical sense it will be very difficult to swat them down like so many flies swarming around, it will be futile to try. what struck me about your little interview there with paul ryan is the way he did it all with a smile. you know. and that captures one of the things that i think is a plus that they brings to the ticket. namely a ticket that needed more likeability, paul ryan brings a lot. he's a likeable person. and he can make the case in a very easy going way for what he

is proposing. the interesting thing about this choice, to me, is that romney's campaign has taken kind of a subtle shift here from a campaign that was about fixing the economy, right, in terms of jobs and incomes and stuff, to a campaign that's now seems to put the accent on fixing the debt, fixing the fiscal situation. they're not exactly the same thing. furthermore, the economy is what voters are more concerned about. they are concerned about fiscal debt, but if you look at the polls, considerably more people are concerned about the economy. so you now have a ticket that used to be sort of about the man at the top who is a turn around artist for private equity who is an expert on the economy to a ticket that's more about fixing our fiscal mess. first of all, it's risky because of the very bold proposals in the ryan plan. but i think it might also be risky because it's not necessarily what the voters have as their top priority.

>> bret: charles? >> but i think that romney-ryan can handle that fairly easily because they can say that the deficit and the debt overhanging us, as we can see in europe, is a threat to everything. and it's one of the reasons that it's retarding our growth, causing unemployment, uncertainty, joblessness, et cetera, and it fits the debt fits with hyper regulation, with high taxation, with huge amounts of spending, which are all drags on the economy, which are all these liberal ideas that obama has enacted over the last term. that's why we're stuck where we are. that's the argument. it's not a hard one to make. debt fits into the other things the administration has done. i think what ryan ought to do, i echo what chuck had said -- when you get these attacks, you respond with a smile, a swat, you swat away the attack, but you go right on the attack and you say, this administration that believes in the status quo,

it's exactly the opposite of what obama said he was in 08. it's reactionary liberalism, holding on to everything they've done since the new deal, that they don't have a new idea in their head. the economy is stuck in neutral, sliding backwards, high unemployment. they have no idea how to do anything new other than repeat the mistakes. we have new ideas, innovation, we are the future and progress. that was the reagan idea in 1980. it worked then. i think it's going to work now. >> bret: kirsten, quickly, i know the talking point from democrats today is that they love this pick and that they're really excited about this pick and how it plays in someplace like where i'm sitting in florida. but is there a part that is fearful about the line of attack, the line of explanation that charles just gave? >> no. not even a tiny, tiny little part. there is such jubilation and glee behind the scenes, i think that what the obama campaign has been sending out a lot of information on their twitter

feed about paul ryan, they have abstained from what they did with palin, which was the exuberance they showed and laughing at her basically. but i can say behind the scenes they're definitely very happy. >> bret: okay. the panel weighs in on the romney-ryan attack plan. on the incumbents when we come back after this short break. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition

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>> president obama cannot run on this record. it's a terrible record to run on. >> he's going to divide and distract this country to win an election by default. you know what? we're not going to fall for that. >> their campaign has been all about bringing america's perspective on this race as low as they possibly can make it. we're going to talk about issues and a vision for america and not drag down in the dirt like you're seeing for the obama

campaign! >> bret: some of the lines that are being used and deployed against the obama administration already by the new gop ticket. some final thoughts from our panel now down the road. bill, first to you. >> i think this is a race for romney-ryan, this could end up being a pivot point. more than a vice presidential pick. it changes the tenor of the campaign. >> bret: chuck? >> it looks like now the presidential -- the president for ideas on the republican ticket is paul ryan. and his ideas will be at the heart of this campaign. there will be, what, people are debating. i think they are because they're bold, they're going to be controversial and risky and we'll find out soon enough whether the down side risk outweigh the upside. >> bret: kirsten? >> i think this was a bad decision for romney made ouof fear likely. but i think it's a good decision

for the conservative movement and you have to understand the conservatives really were pressuring him to do this because it puts -- really positions paul ryan well for the future and i think it has an intellectual person out there making the case for conservativism in a way romney isn't. >> bret: charles, your fellow panelists gave you extra time. how often does that happen? >> never, but i'll take. >> bret: one minute, sir. >> look, i think we may to some extent overestimate the effect that this will have on this election. there is all the enthusiasm today. on election day it will have less effect than we think now. however, i think this is an historic event in the history of the water. romney until now is the intellectual leader of the leader and to some extent defacto, being the budget committee chairman who steered the party in congress of the as of today and because of this bold unusual choice, he is now the second, most important republican politically and beyond this election, if he

quits himself, as i think he will, he will be the presumtive leader of the party for years to come. it could be a generation. so we could see something, the birth of something historic today with the choice of paul ryan. >> bret: panel, thank you very much from washington. it has been a very interesting day. that's it for this panel. stay tuned for an inside look at the ryan-romney relationship it's hard to see opportunity in today's challenging environment. unless you have the right perspective. bny mellon wealth management has the vision and experience to look beyond the obvious. we'll uncover opportunities, find hidden risk,

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we hope you enjoyed today's is special extended political coverage on a saturday night. it was quite a saturday. starting with governor romney's announcement this morning and continues all night right here on fox news channel with prime time coverage. finally, one thing people talk

about with this pick is the relationship and unique relationship romney has with ryan. a rare view here. we thought we would leave you with a moment from romney campaigning with paul ryan weeks ago. ryan joined in with romney staffers to play a practical joke on the candidate introducing him to come out and speak to an empty ballroom. >> and governor mitt romney the next president of the united states! [ applause ] [ laughter ] >> oh, you guys! [ laughter ] >> april fools. >> this really is -- oh, gee, you guys are really bad. bad. >> wrap it up a little. >> something tells me those rooms will be filled now. please join us every week day